ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND/AIM: Coronavirus disease is spreading worldwide. Due to fast transmission and high fatality rate drastic emergency restrictions were issued. During the lockdown, only urgent medical services are guaranteed. All non-urgent services, as breast cancer (BC) screening, are temporarily suspended. The potential of breast cancer screening programs in increasing the survival rate and decreasing the mortality rate has been widely confirmed. Suspension could lead to worse outcomes for breast cancer patients. Our study aimed to analyse the data and provide estimates regarding the temporary BC screening suspension. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Data regarding breast cancer and respective screening programs were achieved through literature research and analysis. RESULTS: Considering three different scenarios with respect to the lockdown's impact on breast cancer screening, we estimate that approximately 10,000 patients could have a missed diagnosis during these 3 months. Considering a 6-month period, as suggested by the Imperial college model, the number of patients who will not receive a diagnosis will rise to 16,000. CONCLUSION: Breast cancer screening should be resumed as soon as possible in order to avoid further breast cancer missed diagnosis and reduce the impact of delayed diagnosis.
Subject(s)
Breast Neoplasms/diagnosis , Coronavirus Infections/epidemiology , Early Detection of Cancer , Mass Screening/trends , Pneumonia, Viral/epidemiology , Aged , Betacoronavirus/pathogenicity , Breast Neoplasms/complications , Breast Neoplasms/epidemiology , COVID-19 , Coronavirus Infections/complications , Coronavirus Infections/virology , Female , Humans , Mammography , Middle Aged , Pandemics , Pneumonia, Viral/complications , Pneumonia, Viral/virology , SARS-CoV-2ABSTRACT
COVID-19 has been officially declared as a pandemic by the WHO. Italy was the first European country to be strongly affected by this outbreak. All elective and health promotion activities were reduced. Accordingly, Italian Breast Units and breast cancer (BC) screening programs scaled down significantly their activities. The aim of this study was to evaluate measures that could potentially reduce the clinical impact of COVID-19 on BC patients. Temporary recommendations are needed that could assist specialists in preventing COVID-19 infection and optimizing resources for diagnosis and treatment of BC patients.